Wallflower
by absolutefiction
Summary: AU. Lucy was used to the constant relocating and changing of schools; perfectly fine with spending the rest of her life on her own, not wanting to open herself to anyone any more than she had to. However, it takes an overly persistent and annoying pink-haired boy to break down her walls and open her heart up once more.


Lucy watched him. It always seemed like she was watching him. It was not intentional but he had such a way about himself that pulled her towards him, whether she liked it or not.

And believe me when I tell you, she did not like it.

Lucy grumbled as she returned to her algebra homework, scribbling through the next problem to try and ignore the fact that he was in the room, once again surrounded by a crowd of his 'admirers' and devoted 'fans'. He could never been seen around campus without them flaunting and practically throwing themselves onto him. It was embarrassing and made Lucy want to gag every time.

She sighed, realizing that her calculations were wrong. Lucy glanced up and spotted her large pink eraser sitting at the edge of her desk. The blonde grabbed it and decided to just start from scratch with the problem all together. Who knew 'x' could be so hard to find?

This whole starting all over again was nothing new to Lucy. With her mother having passed away years before and her father's employment situation being anything but stable, Lucy had relocated and started over quite a few times throughout her life. It had always been difficult and never got any easier but Lucy had become almost too good at it anyways. She had always been used to simply going to school, blending in with the crowds and becoming quite the wallflower, before she got the look from her father that said they were moving again and then she would be packing up and heading out the door without another thought. It was always just easier to keep hidden, not make any friends or lasting impressions on the school; leaving that way was always easiest. Too many times had Lucy gotten attached to others or her classes or her teachers and then felt the waves of depression and despair as a result when her father arrived later that night with a frown and a few spare cardboard boxes from work to pack up their stuff with.

Lucy grumbled in frustration realizing she was going to need help with this math problem after all. The blonde manhandled her notebook and headed over to her teacher's desk to wait in line for assistance. It never was her favourite when she had to ask the teacher directly for help but without the immediate practical help, Lucy knew she was hopeless in mathematics without it. Her only ambition in life was to get good grades, get into a good university, and then move and find her way in the world. So far so good; no unnecessary interruptions had got in the way so far in her future plans.

Suddenly laughter from the back of class caught Lucy's attention as well as their math teacher's, "Hey, piped down back there or I'll be assigning more homework," he called from behind his desk, quickly returning to helping the student currently first in line.

Lucy continued to stare back at the group even long after they had 'piped down'. It was because of him again. She grumbled, realizing she was watching him again.

His name was Natsu Dragneel, also known as the guy who seemed to have everything she had ever hoped and dreamed for: friends, a permanent school, popularity, stability, looks, good grades...the list went on. He was the school's star student, being involved in many clubs and sports' teams. Even his looks were the definition of perfection with his soft pink locks and piercing eyes as well as a solid set of abs; the teenage boy was practically made of pure muscle. Lucy knew the moment she had spotted him with his posse that she was going to hate him. Her jealously of him went further than she would ever care to admit.

Lucy's eyes widened when she realized Natsu had caught her staring at him. Her cheeks flared up as she turned her face to look ahead of her, gripping her notebook like it was a life preserver; she felt like she was drowning at sea. Her stomach did flip flops as she realized that he had caught her again. What was wrong with her? He probably thought she was a major creep.

A hand on her shoulder pulled her from her despairing thoughts. The blonde looked up and saw, much to her frustration and embarrassment, that it was him.

"Hey," Natsu smirked knowingly, his stunningly white teeth poking out from beneath his full beautiful lips, "do I have something on my face or something?"

Lucy gulped then stared at the ground, ignoring the fact that her shoulder felt like electric with his hot hand still gripping her, "No, not at all," she whispered. His grip never let up, causing Lucy to crack under pressure, "Look buddy, just leave me alone!"

She jerked out of his grip before stomping back to her desk, the math problem entirely forgotten. Lucy buried her face into her arms on her desk, mortified and hoping that he would heed her words and leave her alone.

He did.

* * *

Lucy, with her lunch tray in hand, found her usual place at the back of the school under the cherry blossom trees. It was her little piece of heaven on earth and had become Lucy's typical place to eat lunch in complete peace and serenity. It was early Spring so the blossoms had come out, shading the blonde with a pink cloud of delight. The blonde sighed in relief at seeing no one here before she situated herself and prepared to eat her cafeteria-purchased lunch. Usually she would make her lunch with all of her favourites but her alarm had other plans, waking her up only with a few minutes to spare when she had arrived at school; no time to make her usual lunch.

Lucy found the soup to be semi-appetizing and decided to begin with it as she grabbed her spoon. Scooping up some of the chunky bits and pieces, Lucy opened her mouth to take a bite, only to be interrupted by the sky falling.

The blonde screamed, tossing her lunch tray and all of its contents all over the ground around her and some on herself. She tucked herself into a ball, avoiding any other falling objects. Her heart was pounding as whatever fell was moving towards her. Having her head tucked under her arms might not have been the best form of protection because she could not see a single thing and could only sweat buckets as she heard something nearing towards her.

"Ummm," the fallen object from the sky had a voice, "You okay?"

A male voice at that.

Lucy poked her head out from her fetal position only to see prince charming himself standing above her, a look of concern on his face, "Natsu?"

"Oh you know my name?" the pink haired boy smiled, realizing thankfully that she was okay after all, "You okay?"

Lucy blushed realizing she was still tucked into herself. She quickly sat up, noticing that some soup had gotten onto her uniform blouse. She was surprised to see a hand come into her line of vision only to realize that it was Natsu's hand reaching out to help her stand up. Lucy sighed, hesitantly taking the kind offer before standing up in front of Natsu. She gulped, "Nothing."

Natsu smiled, "It's always nothing with you, huh?"

The blonde frowned, getting frustrated with how patronizing he was coming across as, "Well who asked you? Something came crashing out of nowhere and I did the normal human thing by protecting myself."

"Something crashing out of nowhere?" Natsu frowned in concentration, trying to understand what she could be talking about, only to have his eyes widen in understanding as his hand comically came up in a pointing fashion as if he thought of an idea, "Oh you mean me jumping from the tree? Sorry about that, didn't realize anyone was sitting here until I saw you there all scared and stuff."

Lucy growled, of course it was him. For being someone she tried her best to avoid this particular boy, he sure had a knack for causing the blonde the most grief, "Who jumps from trees? And I wasn't scared!"

Natsu chuckled, "Well it's my favourite place on campus to take a nap so, sorry about that."

"Your favourite spot?" Lucy shouted in exasperation, "But it's my favourite spot."

She knew she sounded like a five year old and obviously Natsu was not beyond acting like one himself when he pointed out, "I don't see your name on it."

She placed her hands on her hips in anger, scolding the poor boy and finally reaching her limit with his immature, reckless and insensitive behaviour, "You know what? I came out here like I do every day to eat my lunch in peace and once again you ruin it! What's your problem anyways? I never signed up for this kind of harassment so would you just leave me alone!"

Then without even looking his way, she swirled around and left him dumbfounded and alone as she stormed away back into the cafeteria to find herself a new lunch.

* * *

"Hey I didn't know you worked here!"

Lucy deadpanned when she finally noticed the pink-haired boy standing on the other side of the counter, "Yea, front page news should get right on this is. Now what can I get you?"

The blonde always thought that working at this small local bookstore's coffee shop would be her sanctuary from both home and school, where should would never have to see _him_. But today seemed to be her lucky day when she heard the front door's bell go off notifying her of Natsu's arrival.

"Hey, I'm sorry about the other day."

Lucy blinked, looking at him as if for the first time. He looked truly sorry. The blonde sighed realizing it had been a few days since she last really interacted with the boy since the tree incident. Between her avoiding him and final exam preparations taking place at their high school it had been fairly easy avoiding the high school's prince charming. But her luck had finally run out today.

She realized that he ignored her first question though, "How can I help you?" She replied coldly.

Natsu scrunched up his eyebrows, "Are you going to accept my apology or what?"

Lucy glared, "Oh so you and your conscience can sleep better tonight? No thanks."

The boy starting getting frustrated at her stubbornness, "What? How else am I supposed to apologize? Look, I really am sorry about scaring you but you are overreacting right now."

"No, you look here buddy," Lucy pointed her finger in his direction, the other hand placed on her hip as she gave him her most intimidating look, "You have to learn that you don't always get what you want. I don't need to forgive you so get over it. Now order what you want or get out of here."

"What's stuck up your ass?" Natsu growled back, and then commented more to himself, "No wonder you don't have any friends."

It was an offhand comment that she most likely was not supposed to hear but Lucy had heard it nonetheless. The blonde suddenly felt the tiny pin pricks start up behind her eyes, informing her that she indeed wanted to cry, "Get out."

Natsu's eyes widened as he realized she must have heard what he had said, "Hey I'm sorry, I didn't mea-"

"Get out! Why is that so hard for you to understand?" Lucy pointed behind him towards the door, "No one asked you to comment on my choice of lifestyle. Who said I needed friends anyway? Just get out and leave me alone."

The teenage boy frowned, staring at her for a moment in sadness and sympathy before he turned around and headed back the way he came without another word.

* * *

"That's the last of it, dad."

Her father peaked out of the moving truck to smile, "Okay, I'll get this loaded up and meet you there alright? You have the directions?"

Lucy nodded sending him a small smile while waving the small piece of paper with their new home address on it that he had scribbled earlier, "Yup, I'll grab the last few things and load them up in the car then take off behind you. I'll call if I need anything, don't worry."

The older man smiled before closing the back of the moving truck and fastening it all in place securely. He patted his dusty hands on his moving overalls before walking up to his daughter, "Lucy, I'm sorry this had to happen so shortly after the last move. And you were just beginning to get settled."

Lucy sent him a smile, "Hey it's okay, I'm fine. It's nothing new and I'm excited about this one, we'll be right next to the beach this time!"

This was the same old routine they played each and every time: her father would mourn and feel terrible at what he put his daughter through and Lucy would do her best act and make her father feel better. These roles never got old.

The only difference was that Lucy had left this school on a more sour note than she usually did. Yes the blonde was used to moving but she always made her best attempt at least at leaving the school on a positive note. But it was Natsu's defeated and sad face from the coffee shop earlier that week that had been stuck in her mind ever since she found out she was moving. It had been last minute on her father's part so Lucy had had very little time to pack or say her good byes; not that she needed that much time to accomplish that.

But it had left her with hardly any time to at least apologize to Natsu. Even through all of her pride and stubbornness, Lucy had realized that she had been too harsh to him when all he had wanted to do was apologize. She felt guilty but never had the courage to apologize to him and now she would not have the time to either.

She sighed as she waved to her father through the moving truck's front window as he pulled away, heading to their new place a few towns away. Lucy turned to grab the last few things from their front porch. Grabbing the first box, she used her car's clicker to open the back trunk of her car. The trunk lid popped open but not all the way, much to Lucy's frustrations. Using her leg, she attempted to pry the trunk open and failed miserably. Realizing she would have to put the box down to open it, Lucy let her leg down only to see another hand grab the trunk door and pull it open before she could do anything more.

Lucy followed the other hand up to the owner realizing that it was Natsu himself. Without a word he grabbed the loaded box from her arms and gently placed it in the car's trunk space. Lucy was silent as she watched him. He was not looking at her either, still staring at the box in the trunk that he had just let go of, "So I heard you're moving."

It was not a question but surprised her nonetheless, "How'd you know?"

Natsu finally looked at her, "I finally asked the teacher where you were. You haven't been at school for a few days now so I was just starting to worry is all. She told me you withdrew from the school and then told me where I could find you."

Lucy stood there confused, "You were worried?"

The teenage boy frowned, trying to hide or stop the blush that was creeping up his cheeks, "Well duh, anyone would worry about someone if they never showed up to school without any word."

The blonde frowned, "What are you talking about? I don't have any friends as you so kindly pointed out to me before."

Natsu sighed, staring down at the ground, at a loss for words. Lucy realized her snarky comments were getting in the way of what she really wanted to say and how this conversation should have been going. The blonde sighed, swallowing her pride for this one time, "Look, I'm sorry. I'm not good at saying it but..."

Lucy glanced up at Natsu half way through speaking and was suddenly at a loss for words with the genuine smile the boy was sending her way, "What?"

Natsu chuckled, "Well this is probably the most nicest you've ever been to me since we first met."

The blonde frowned in confusion, "First met? And I can be nice...when I wanna be." Lucy crossed her arms and pouted, causing the boy to laugh at her again.

"The first time we met," Natsu continued, "You mean you don't remember?" She shook her head in the negative causing Natsu to pout, "That's unfortunate. Well, if you don't remember then that sucks for you."

Lucy felt her patience wearing thin, "Well tell me already!"

Natsu smirked knowingly, sending a chill down Lucy's spine, "You'll have to wait."

"Wait?" Lucy growled, "If you haven't realized, I'm moving away."

"Yea I know," Natsu's smirk only widened, "The secretary told me where so I know it's only a couple towns away right? That's like an hour or so drive."

Lucy deadpanned, "She told you? Who threw privacy out the window?!"

Natsu laughed at her, "Either way, this isn't good bye."

That silenced the blonde, "What do you mean?"

"What do I mean? I mean we will see each other again, silly. You're such a weirdo."

"Weirdo?! Who are you calling a weirdo?"

"I just called you one. See? So weird."

Lucy felt a vein pop in her forehead when Natsu laughed at her again, this was getting old, she thought. But unfortunately for her, the blushes that adorned her cheeks were giving something else away. This was probably the longest conversation she had had in such a long time and it was happening with the last possible person she would ever think of: Natsu.

This pink-haired boy had cared enough about her to ask where she had been the past few days and tracked her down in time to see her off. When was the last time she had someone do that for her?

Long enough for Lucy to have forgotten.

"Well are you going to tell me when we first met or what?" Lucy grumbled, "I have to go."

Natsu smiled, "Nah, I'll tell you when I see you next. How does this Saturday sound?"

"What?" Lucy shouted, "Who says I want to see you again?"

"Next Saturday it is then. I'll pick you up around three if that works?"

He was ignoring her which frustrated her to no end. But finding that all of this anger was tiring her out, Lucy only sighed in defeat, "Yea whatever. I don't know why this is such a big deal anyways."

That was when Natsu's face turned quite serious, "Not a big deal? You're moving away, silly. Of course it's a big deal. I won't see you as often."

Lucy furrowed her brows and glared at the boy, "What do you mean not as often? It's not like we hung out or anything before. This is the longest conversation we've had since I moved to this school."

Natsu smiled softly and shrugged and started to blush a bit before saying, "I saw you often, believe me."

Suddenly Lucy was blushing along with him. Had he also always been watching her? How had she missed this? Did he know she watched him too then? It did not matter though; she needed to stop thinking about this before her face blew up with how hot she was getting, "Well umm...Saturday then."

Natsu beamed, "Yea, Saturday."

Lucy finally smiled as well, "I look forward to it."

And with a quick hug despite Lucy's yells and complaints, Lucy was sent off by a waving and smiling Natsu and a giant hopeful smile of her own as she drove away. A tear left Lucy's eyes as she realized this was the first time she did not really want to move away; but really did not seem to mind this time around because it was not really a good bye; more like a 'see you later'.

Whether she would admit to it or not though, she was glad someone had finally noticed the wallflower.

* * *

**A/N: **There will be a sequel to this telling Natsu's perspective and this 'first meeting' he's talking about. :) R&R and hope you enjoyed it!


End file.
